


The Real Monsters

by CyndaGhoul812



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - SlaveTale (Undertale), Angst, Biting, Blood and Gore, Depression, Domestic, Drunk Sans, Eventual Romance, F/M, Female Reader, Fluff, Interspecies Relationship(s), Main character deaths, Master/Slave, Nightmares, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Post Pacifist Route Gone Wrong, Protective Sans, Sensitive bones, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, Swearing, hurt comfort, monster racism, puns
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-21 16:12:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17046779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyndaGhoul812/pseuds/CyndaGhoul812
Summary: You saved him with enslavement.You never felt more like a monster in your life.





	1. Chapter 1

The collar hung heavily from your hand swaying at your side. 

It wasn't your slave collar. You'd never thought to own another creature like that before. You'd never even owned a pet before, even though you had wanted one so badly as a kid. 

Now you didn't think you could even own a simple goldfish without feeling queasy about it.

The collar belonged… Had belonged to your co-workers slave. He'd given it an order, what exactly was never specified by him, and the collar had eventually dusted the poor thing. It was odd, and you were beyond curious at the out of character action. Tyler was a pretty simple down to Earth guy as far as you knew. Still, when he had called you in tears, asking you to take the thing away from his sight you felt compelled to help him out. 

Since the collars were government property, they would need to be returned if not in use. Failure to do so within twenty four hours would have the cops at your door soon after the deadline was reached. There was an exception to the rule though. If you found a new slave you could register it at a monster center with the old collar whether you caught a wild one or bought one, it didn't matter. However, that also needed to meet the collar's twenty four hour limit. All monster's needed to be recorded for safety reasons according to government regulations.

Tyler was a sensitive soul, he couldn't handle the idea of touching the instrument of his ‘pet's’ early death. You were going to have to drop it off for him tomorrow morning unless he decided to call you about getting a new slave tomorrow.

Everyone would never think of the Ebott mountain monsters as nothing less than slaves to humanity. 

And the thought sickened you.

They were sentient. They thought for themselves, felt emotions, could even speak our own languages. Yet, humanity fearing the worst, captured the newly emerged monsters after a lengthy standoff at the base of the mountain, and created the slave collars soon after.

Running off magic and electricity, they weren't normal shock collars. They forced the monsters into submission by slowly increasing in damage until the slave relented to the owners commands. It was disgusting power play.

Some monsters rebelled or went into hiding. A few managed to crawl back into the prison of their former home even. 

Sighing, you brought the collar to the level of your face once more and glared at the offending object. The silent flashing blue light on the side of main component of the device indicating that it no longer had a host. It was currently waiting to latch itself to another creature's neck to feed off the monsters own energy to keep itself powered up. It was definitely inventive, but not your cup of tea.

How'd you get pity tripped into doing this again?

It was pitch dark outside. The ground wet on the city streets after a constant rainfall over the past couple days. Ebott city was massive. Although you didn't live in the slums. You still weren't in the most luxurious area by any means. No family, no friends. You were a loner by nature. You hated intimacy with a passion. Loathing the idea of someone abandoning you yet again.

Tyler was probably your closest acquaintance. You barely saw him four days a week at the brewery you worked at downtown. The guy was barely two years younger to you and was clingy to everyone he knew. He seemed compelled to brighten your gloomy life. Oh well, you liked him well enough to have a good friendly chat with him now and then. He reminded you of what it'd be like to have a younger brother.

Turning onto a different backstreet. You made a face at the dark pathway. The streetlamps had gone out once again it seemed. You continued on, not really caring too much about the normally terrifying situation when you saw a flash of blue up ahead to the left.

You paused, instincts you normally ignored kicking in momentarily.

There was a yell, and a bunch of crashing sounds. It could almost have been mistaken for someone getting shanked or something until another flash of blue lit up the small alleyway up ahead and something akin to a hyper beam zapped out of the entrance of the alley and hit the side of the building to your right. A burning smell rose as you numbly observed the charred brick wall.

… The fuck?

Inching your resistant legs to move forward, you peered into the alleyway and froze. The alley opened up to a decent size roomy square sized area where a giant monster out of someone's crazed fever dream stood with giant incisors snapping back and forth at something else.

The other creature flickered into existence facing the monstrosity. You were entranced as you focused on the newcomer. He was a short skeleton in a fur lined blue hoodie and black gym shorts. His left eye blazing blue as magic gathered in his left hand. His eye sockets were narrowed as the bigger monster continued to laugh at him.

Without warning, the larger horror movie monster screeched and powered up two flame throwers that heated up the surrounding area uncomfortably. It reminded you of the nights you got too close to a campfire. The skeleton vanished from sight right before the red and orange flames licked up the sides of the surrounding buildings.

In the distance you heard cop sirens start up. They'd probably be here in a couple minutes. Someone nearby must have heard the disturbance and called.

You quietly doubted that they'd be capable of handling this elephant sized abomination. Its wiggling insectoid body lighting up with magic as it prepared a green vine attack. 

A large canine looking skull materialized and set off another one of those blue hyper beams that hit the insect monster square in the face. It roared furiously and slammed it’s vine appendage down. The skull smashing to pieces onto the ground and turning to dust within seconds. 

The original skeleton teleported back in front of the monster, it's back to you as it faced down its foe.

“look buddy, it's obvious you ain't gonna win this fight,” The skeleton's pleasing male baritone voice rang out in the sudden lull of the battle, “i warned you that you were going to have a bad time now, didn't i?”

The other monster hissed before its eerily large eyes snapped up to lock onto your shocked looking face. It looked thrilled to see you, if that was even possible. 

Laughing maniacally, the creature pulled itself up to its towering height and made a beeline towards the skeleton and you. The skeleton teleported once more as you ran off towards where you came from. Screw this, you would not be monster food if you could help it. Then it happened, you stupidly tripped over a pothole. You hit the ground hard, pain shooting up your leg as you mentally took note of your scraped up knee and twisted ankle.

Awesome, just what you needed right now. Thanks life!

Pulling yourself to your feet, you started forward again when the ground shook from behind you. Stumbling forward you almost made another run to freedom when the skeleton from before teleported right in front of you. He looked surprised right before you plowed right into him, knocking you both over once again. Pain laced through your body in earnest now. The skeleton's body wasn't exactly too far off from landing on concrete and had quite a few more bony edges to land on.

The both of you groaned as you lay there for a moment before you both started to move again. Only you were both being dragged in the wrong direction. The monster beneath you stiffened, and blue filled your vision as its magic flare to life. He shoved you off of him, and you rolled to a stop on the asphalt once more. Sitting up immediately, you saw the insect looking monster pulling the skeleton close with its vine limb. The vine was tightly wrapped around the skeleton's ankle bones.

“THANKS, HUMAN!” Words hissed from the insect monster’s maw, before it started cackling madly.

The skeleton hung upside down at this point in its clutches. Their left eye blazing blue as it hung with its arms crossed across its chest. 

“that was a low bone,” The skeleton said with a slight smirk.

Was the skeleton seriously using puns right now?

“picking me up while i was down. i suppose in most situations i should be thanking you for that.”

The creature said nothing as another vine came up to slither closer to the skeleton's chest. You could see from your place on the ground that the skeleton was obviously uneasy about this new approach, his left hand burst with blue magic and several more of those giant floating skulls appeared in a circle around them. 

The larger monster grinned at the threat instead as its body hummed with new energy. Beautiful neons colors blasted through the air and a physical wave of power knocked you back against the ground again. The creature was glowing radiantly now, and the skulls were quickly turning to ash.

The skeleton was sweating in earnest now as he began to struggle in the monsters hold. His image flickered slightly as he tried multiple times to teleport away, but to no avail.

“KILL OR BE KILLED,” It rumbled so loudly that you could feel it rattle you down to the bone.

It's vine appendage reached back up to yank the skeleton's white undershirt up, revealing his bare rib cage. You sat up again frozen equally in curiosity and dread as the vine continued its path to reach up underneath the smaller monster’s chest cavity and pull out a pure white upside down heart. A monster's Soul.

The skeleton gasped in pain, his eye sockets scrunching up in agony as the vine wrapped tighter around the Soul. The skeleton's blue eye faded out and tiny white eye lights took its place in both eyes instead. This thing was killing him right in front of you.

You didn't think. You could only act. You pushed yourself up and felt determined to stop this thing and -

A burning red heart pushed it's way from your chest painlessly as it floated up to confront the creature. It screeched in surprise, dropping the skeleton whose Soul floated back safely inside him once more. 

Hands fisted to your sides you snarled, “Leave him alone!”

The police sirens sounded closer than ever as the creature obviously tried to figure out if it could sneak past your confrontation fast enough to get to the skeleton before they showed up. It hissed in displeasure at you, growling threateningly before crawling onto the side of the building to your right and disappearing over the edge of the rooftop. 

What must have been your own Soul flew back into your chest with a cool rush. Placing a hand over where it had disappeared, you let out the breath you'd been holding before turning back to the problem at hand.

You hurried over to the skeleton, lifting up his shirt without much thought to check on his Soul. Unlike most monsters, skeletons were pretty fragile in comparison. They didn’t even have solid flesh made bodies to prevent their Souls from being taken away against their will, like what was just previously demonstrated. His Soul pulsed weakly, droplets of red blood splattered along the outer surface, fractures spiderwebbed out from the center. You had no idea if this was life threatening or not.

Faster than you can blink the skeleton was gone from in front of you and you reached out to catch yourself from falling forward on your face again. Looking up, the monster was now a few feet away, sitting up and scooting backwards away from you. His face was coated in sweat, body shaking in obvious distress. The poor guy was probably a lot worse off than he was trying to let on.

“Hey, uh sorry that was rude, I didn’t mean to… Look I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I thought that thing knocked you out.” You scratched the back of your neck feeling uncomfortable under his intense gaze. His left eye light flickering in and out of blue, but never like how it was when he was fighting. The eyelights remained tiny pinpricks that studied you from a small distance.

“nice to meet ya. wish it was under better circumstances, but i gotta get going,” He said stiffly, before his image flickered slightly. Traces of blue magic sparked in the air, but in the end he ended up staying put. 

“Out of magic?” You guessed.

“not quite,” He frowned before turning his gaze past you to the streets behind you. You checked over your shoulder seeing the brightening red and blue lights appearing from around the corner. The police. You’d almost forgotten about them. You wondered if you should just leave before they started looking for the source of the neighborhood disturbance. Then you turned back to the skeleton.

Shit, what about him?!

Could he even get away?

What would they do if they found an unregistered uncollared monster with you. Would they take him away and… then what? You had a feeling he probably wouldn’t end up in the good hands. At best he would end up experimented on or harshly interrogated. Most likely a rogue like him would be killed. No normal monster had that much magical prowess. He was probably had a boss Soul with unimaginable HP and attack power. You’d seen it with your own two eyes. 

You didn’t want them to kill him. It wasn’t fair. The poor guy could barely stay sitting up, his eye sockets drooping sleepily even in the face of the new threat approaching.

You turned back to look at shadows of the police officers as they got closer to walking onto the street you both were on. You had maybe seconds to act. Your gaze fell down to the collar still unbelievably clutched in your left hand. Could you do it? Take away someone’s freedom like that to save them. Fear like ice flooded your veins. Your heart thudded harshly in your chest. Death or slavery? What amazing choices to choose from…

Turning to face the skeleton, you crawled forward hurriedly, ignoring the startled look on his strangely expressive face.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how sorry I am for this,” You held up the collar for him to look at, his gaze hardening in what you assumed to be anger. “Please just play along. I can’t let them take you in good conscious.”

“w-wait stop,” He stuttered, anger turning quickly to panic as you reached forward to snap the awful thing around his neck, it tightened instantly coiling like a snake around his neck. Blue magic sparked into the collar, powering it on, and the skeleton gasped out weakly in pain. Like a puppet with its strings cut, he started to fall sideways, but you caught him. Pulling him closer, you held him steadily against you as the cops finally entered the post battle zone.

“You there! We have a few questions for you two!” The taller brunette officer called out instantly.

Jumping slightly from the sudden yelling, you turned your head to watch them walk over to you.

“Are you alright, young miss?” The officer asked, eyebrows furrowing in concern.

You blinked, still in shock from the recent events. Then you felt the tear tracks on your cheeks, although you still felt numb to it, your subconscious still rebelled against your split second decision. Maybe you could make your inner turmoil work in your favor?

“M-my m-monster and I…. We were attacked b-by this huge beast. It j-just ran off over there,” You pointed up to the rooftop of the building it escaped to.

“Are you two alright? We’d like to ask you both a few more questions if you have the time?”

You shook your head back and forth, “I just w-wanna go home."

"I know, miss. We'll only be a moment," 

You recounted the events as best you could while you weaved in the lie of owning a monster prior to this event. According to you the skeleton monster defended you valiantly up until the police showed up a couple minutes ago. The police seemed satisfied with this and started to depart. They had offered you both a ride home, but you politely declined. You were secretly wary of cars to begin with. Your whole life, you'd depended on your own two feet to carry you place to place. Even growing up, your family had only owned one dinged up car that was only to be used for emergencies. If you were feeling adventurous you'd use the city bus, but that was it.

Back to the present, you still had to figure out how to get the skeleton monster back to your apartment.

He looked completely out cold. 

Hm.

Maybe you could carry him?

He couldn’t weigh that much…

Carefully, you maneuvered him onto your back and stood, hooking your arms underneath both his knees and leaning forward so he would stay slumped against you. You were right, he was barely thirty pounds tops.

You were now the rightful owner of a skeleton monster.

But you couldn’t stop the one pestering thought as you limped towards home.

That you were a monster for doing this.


	2. Chapter 2

The city remained almost eerily quiet as you finished lugging the unconscious sack of bones behind you. No one even batted an eye as you stumbled along past a few night time stragglers on the road. You were protected from most of nighttime unpleasantries due to your brother's status.

But that was a story for another time.

Deciding to take the elevator to the eighth floor of the apartment complex. You huffed in agitation as the old machine whirled in stress, moving painfully slow up to your floor. You always took the stairs. It was sadly twice as fast as this old piece of crap. However, your lungs were burning after walking nearly twenty minutes with an extra thirty pounds of dead weight on your back.

Feeling a headache starting to pound away inside you skull, you burst free of the elevator as soon as the squeaky doors jerked open. After fumbling for your key, you shouldered the door open and finally dumped your newly forced roommate onto your couch. This was not how you wanted this day to end.

He would probably be thinking the same thing once he woke up.

God, what were you going to do?

You sank down into the only other piece of furniture you had in your apartment. The giant beanbag that served also as your bed. Your tiny studio apartment was just one big room, complete with a tiny kitchen and bathroom. You didn't care to buy a bed since you lived off only the essentials in life. You cut corners to save as much money as possible for the future. It was what you did when you were brought up to survive in tough times. The only thing you ‘splurged’ on was the tiny eighteen inch television that sat on a small mountain of empty, mostly clean pizza boxes.

You turned back to look at the couch and nearly jumped out of your skin. The skeleton's eye sockets were wide open. Jet black holes staring straight at you. There were no pinpricks of light that you'd begun to recognize as the monster's pupils. Was he even awake?

Holy hell, this was creepy.

“Hello?”

No response.

Maybe that's how he slept?

Your eyes moved downward to the collar barely visible underneath part of his hoodie. Guilt ate away at your insides as you watched the slowly flashing red light giving off an ominous aura. Looked like you weren't getting any restful sleep tonight. This guy would probably try to murder you the second he woke up... Either that or make a run for it.

If you didn't get him registered by tomorrow the collar would automatically begin to shock him to death. The collar would have assumed that he was a runaway. You wondered if he knew about that…

“So, if you can hear me, I just want you to know that you shouldn’t run off. That collar will start zapping you to death tomorrow if I don’t get you registered. I promise I’ll figure out how to get that thing off you, but you gotta work with me first,” You said clearly, suspecting that he wasn’t as unaware as he seemed.

He looked like a survivor too.

You knew all the old tricks.

He was gathering intel before deciding how to act most likely.

Whatever… As long as he didn’t try to murder you in your sleep.

Snatching the spare fleece throw blanket off the ground, you cocooned it around you and rolled onto your side. You punched the bean bag into your preferred shape before nestling further into the comfy furniture.

Police sirens cried out miles away, cars horns honked in the distance, two people argued in a vigorous lovers spat two floors above you, but it was all music to your ears. You let it lull you leisurely to sleep.

The next time you opened your eyes, the soft morning light was cascading through your dirty apartment window. The faded white light made you blink a couple times as your vision adjusted to the sudden brightness. You turned your tired gaze over to the couch.

The empty couch.

Well shit, the monster had a death wish. You could still respect that though on some strange level.

Once he was registered, you would have had full control over his every action. His life would have literally been in your hands. At least he’d get to enjoy his final hours of freedom before the government dusted him sometime before sundown this afternoon.

You probably would have to still report the missing collar later though before they started hounding Tyler.

Sighing, you stretched your sore limbs and flexed your foot a few times, testing out how truly injured your ankle was. It twinged in warning, but nothing too serious. You’d just have to be mindful of it for a couple of weeks probably.

You tentatively stood and stumbled over to the small bathroom to get ready. The usual morning routine flew by in a blur before you found yourself shuffling over to the kitchen near the front door to the apartment. Stopping dead in your tracks, you took in the sight before you.

The skeleton was sitting in front of the refrigerator, leaning his side up against it looking downright miserable. His eyelights twitched up to look up at you, the corner of his toothy grin widened ever so slightly in an almost self deprecating way. Sweat coated every inch of his visible bony body, and that lethargicness still had a tight hold on him. If possible he looked worse than the night before.

This was not how you thought your first real conversation would go with him.

“Uh… What are you doing?”

He chuckled darkly, “this collar had a bone to pick with me when i tried to grab myself some food.”

“You seriously can’t get food from the fridge by yourself?” You questioned, raising an eyebrow.

His hand lifted tentatively towards the refrigerator handle in demonstration when a warning beep started to go off and he dropped his arm immediately.

“But why?”

“i can’t say i’m too _shocked_ about this new revelation. can you get me something to eat though? i’m about to start dusting as it is.”

“Yeah, what do you want?” You headed over to stand before the fridge, the skeleton shuffling out of your way to lean back against the lower kitchen cabinets nearby.

“food.”

Rolling your eyes, you picked out a cheese stick and handed it over to him as you continued to search for more edible foods. You got way too much takeout on a daily basis. The only stuff you really kept in your fridge were condiments. You had almost closed the fridge door to start searching through the cabinets when the skeleton quickly interjected.

“wait, is that ketchup?”

“... You want to dunk your cheese stick in ketchup?” You turned to look at his slightly amused looking eye lights.

“no.”

“Then why-?”

He started to reach out when the device beeped angrily at him and gave a slight warning shock. He grimaced in pain before curling in on himself, skull resting on his knees as he caught his breath.

Feeling guilty about him getting hurt for some reason, you picked up the ketchup and set it next to him.

What a weird morning.

You took in a breath before you spoke next, knowing this part had to be done sooner or later.

“Okay listen, I think we need to talk before we take a trip down to the monster adoption center. I don’t trust you, and I know you don’t trust me. But I’m hoping we can find some level ground to stand on before we continue with... whatever this is.”

Backing up to the kitchen counter, you pushed yourself up to sit on top of it with your legs dangling back and forth beneath you. The skeleton shifted his head slightly to glare up at you with narrowed eye sockets. Seems like the electric shock made him grumpy again.

It wasn’t your fault that he shocked himself…

“What’s your name?” You asked first.

You could practically feel the static of tension in the room as his left eye briefly glowed that mesmerizing cerulean blue. He obviously wasn’t feeling up to playing a round of twenty questions. You couldn’t blame him in the slightest either.

So instead you gave him your name before moving onto the next question.

“What was that thing last night?”

“...”

“Would you rather go first?” You grumbled, feeling miffed about his sudden silent treatment.

“... what are your intentions with me?” His eye sockets went completely dark just like the night before when he was ‘sleeping.’ Well that answered your suspicions about that. “you said you’d help me get this collar off eventually. am i to be your slave or not?”

“No, never,” The answer coming easily to you as you stared back at his distrusting face while his eye lights flickered back to life. “I did what I did last night to protect you. I was panicking and I knew if those dudes saw you without a collar they would have captured or killed you. I’ve seen so many wild monster’s dusted in the streets by cops and extermination squads. It’s awful and inhumane.”

“then what _is_ your plan?”

“I don’t know yet,” You answered truthfully, “All I know is that you have to get registered today at the center if you want to keep on living. From then on though, I’ll treat you like a roommate if you want, minus you paying me rent. That wouldn’t be fair. As far as I know though, only adoption center higher ups can take the collars off though once they’ve latched onto a monster host. It’ll take some time to get you free, but I’ll figure something out eventually.”

“i’m going _tibia_ honest with you, kiddo. it's true i don’t trust ya. i don’t think you quite understand how much power you’ll hold over my head once you have the wristband that connects to this collar.”

“wristband?”

“it’s how you can control your slave from large distances. you tell the wristband what you want and the collar enforces your will on the monster no matter where they are. it has a lot of other uses to. many people change drastically once that kind of power has been handed to them like that. humans can be quite scary.”

He looked like he was battling some inner demons then as he trailed off towards the end of his short explanation.

“I’ll never order you to do anything purposely. I know you don’t believe me, but you’ll have to make that leap of faith if you want to survive.”

“you don’t understand. i would never be able to refuse a direct command from you.”

“Yeah but the starting disciplinary shock from a direct command starts at like 1 HP. If I mess up and ask something of you, you’d be able to deny me for a little bit before I fix the mistake.”

The skeleton chuckled humorlessly, “that’s sort of the bare bones of the problem.”

“Look I’m going to do my best not to unintentionally order you around anyways. Besides, I could have been doing so all morning and I haven’t thus far. I got you into this mess, please let me help you get you out of it.”

The monster fell quiet once more, running a bony hand over his face before reaching out to grab the ketchup near his hip, ignoring the cheese stick. Inspecting the bottle briefly, he fluidly turned it sideways and opened his jaw to squirt an obscene amount of ketchup into his void of a mouth.

What the fuck?

He looked back at you, and actually laughed at your expression. His first real laugh since you two started this conversation. His arms wrapped around his legs loosely, open ketchup bottle still in his grasp as his laughs quieted down. The mirth on his face faded slightly before he gave a weary sigh, shaking his head with closed eye sockets.

“... sans.”

You perked up at the freely given name.

He’d given in.

How or why?

You had no idea.

But you felt determined not to betray his miniscule trust in you.

* * *

 

The monster adoption center reminded you of going to the secretary of state's office with your dad as a kid. Sitting uncomfortably in a stiff plastic chair beside Sans, you waited with about twenty other people in the lobby for your name to be called. From there, you had the option to take a tour of the heavily guarded kennel in the back or fill out legal documents at the front desks for various purposes.

The environment in the room was stifling with boredom and anxious people and monsters. You almost cracked up when you stopped your people watching only to find Sans doing the exact same thing, only much more wary than you.

Two antisocial beans in a pod.

“Relax, it's gonna be fine. As soon as we’re done we can pick up some food then go home.” You whispered, crossing your legs and reclining back as much as you could in the horrible plastic chair. Sans didn't respond, but his causal, lazy posture didn’t fool you. If you hadn't seen how dangerous he was the night before you would never begin to suspect him to be capable of such amazing destructive power. He was mentally preparing himself for a fight before it even began. You wondered how long he’d been roaming the streets alone to develop that sort of mentality. Or maybe it had always been ingrained in him.

You were still beyond curious about the other monster he'd been fighting the night before.

Yet, it didn't look like Sans would be letting you have that kind of information anytime soon.

“Number 22!”

“Whelp, that's us,” You groaned slightly as you rocked forward out of chair. Sans standing quietly and following cautiously behind you.

“Name and driver's license,” The middle aged no nonsense man from behind the desk grumbled out. He looked like he could have been a bodyguard at some point. He was huge and intimidating.

You told him your name and forked over your license you hadn't used for driving since passing drivers ed. Your dad had made you take it during your senior year of high school. At least it allowed you to buy drinks on the occasionally night out with co-workers or family.

“What can I do for you?” He handed you back your license.

“I need to get him and the collar registered. The collar belonged to my friend’s monster, but he sadly dusted the night before. I found him,” You gestured to Sans, “outside this morning and snuck up on him before he had a chance to run.”

The guy gave Sans a disinterested look before motioning him to come closer. Sans stood his ground, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

“Order him to get his ass over here. I don’t have time for this.” The worker snapped impatiently a scan gun at the ready in his hand.

“It's okay, Sans. He just has to scan the barcode on your collar.” You jerked your head towards towards the employee, hoping he wouldn't make too much of a scene.

The sweaty looking skeleton paused for another moment before shuffling forward. The guy reached out without warning and yanked him forward by the collar not very gently and turned the main component of the shock collar up. Scanning the barcode quickly he roughly let go of Sans who would've fallen if you hadn't reached out to steady him.

Damn, these people didn't give one fuck about monsters.

Sans wasted no time slinking back behind you as you finished up the paperwork. You probably signed over twenty different forms before Mr. Pissy face forked over the mandatory bracelet. Apparently, you were required to wear this at all times now. Looked like Sans wasn't only one wear accessories they couldn't take off. You fastened it to your left wrist, hearing it click with finality into place. No going back now.

“Here’s an instruction manual, read it when you get the chance.” He dropped a small booklet down in front of you that snatched up, your eyes never wavering from his fed up expression. “The collar’s already preset to a close range perimeter. If the idiot steps more than ten feet away from you, that beauty on its neck will shock him nicely as a reminder to pay attention.” The man explained hurriedly before he twisted around to look at the group of waiting customers. “Next.”

But you weren't done.

“Thanks for the stellar customer service, buddy! I'll be sure to let your boss know how great you are at doing your job. Hopefully, he’ll treat you better than you treated him.” You jerked your thumb behind you to point at the skeleton monster as you laid into him with the heavy sarcasm before adding. “Dick.”

“Next!”

You grinned at his flustered face that was turning redder by the second.

Oh, he was pissed.

He deserved it.

Whirling around and pulling Sans by the sleeve of his jacket for a moment, you left in a hurry. A couple people stared at you and gave the employee behind the counter confused looks. Hopefully, someone else would put him in his place after you left.

Nobody even treated domestic animals like that. Everyone in that room would be either concerned or throwing a fit if he was doing that to a dog instead of a monster. People were fucking awful. You wish you had offered to scan the barcode for him instead. Make up some excuse that would've worked out in both your favors.

“don't sweat about it, kiddo. could've been worse.”

“He didn't have to be an outright dick about it though. Fuck it, I'm pissed and I want a cheeseburger.” You turned down a different street, Sans following close by on your heels. It felt weird to be so aware of another living being sharing your personal space with you. You'd been alone for so long. Seven years maybe? Six?

Silence fell between the two of you as you walked off your frustration. The scene replaying over and over in your head. Poor Sans probably had a heart attack… Soul attack? When that guy had grabbed him. You vowed to yourself to not let anything like that happen again while the two of you were stuck together.

You looked up and spotted three familiar guys from up ahead that hadn't quite noticed who you were yet. There was an escape route coming up in a few seconds, but you were already pulling out your phone and sending a quick text to your brother just in case.

**Big Bro (10:45):**

Burdick St. There's 3 of them.

Without hesitating you cut into an alleyway and took a few different alternate routes before arriving at your destination. You felt two curious eyelights studying your every calculated move the entire time. Eventually, you felt like you owed Sans some sort of explanation.

“They're from a local gang. I don't think they'd try anything in broad daylight, but you can never be too careful.” You said as you made your way over to stand in line at Monster Burger.

“i see,” Sans replied after a moment, looking deep in thought. His eyelights became more alert looking a moment later when a slight commotion sounded from the alleyway you'd both just come from.

There was a loud voice yelling at something or someone, but you couldn't hear what was being said.

You doubted it was the gang from before.

You let yourself relax slightly, instincts still at the forefront of your mind as you kept eyes and ears open anyways.

When it was your turn, you quickly ordered a whole bunch of food. This way you'd have leftovers later on. Remembering Sans’ bizarre breakfast choice this morning, you grabbed a large handful of ketchup packets to put in your takeout bag before heading back to the apartment complex.

Walking past the front of the alleyway from before curiously, you saw a bipedal cat monster sitting next to a dumpster. He was curled up in a sitting position, chained to the brick wall behind him. You faintly recalled monsters not being allowed to eat or work in sit down restaurants. His owner must've just got to work or they were having lunch inside.

Turning to look at Sans’ reaction, you inwardly found yourself agreeing with the dark look on his face as he assessed the scene with you. Without a word, you both started off down the sidewalk again.

You couldn't save everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy cow, I wasn't expecting that much of response! My sleep deprived self could barely comprehend all the kudos and lovely comments. Thank you guys! 
> 
> To answer a few of your questions, I have no real writing schedule, I just kinda write on the go and release chapters when I feel they're ready for public eyes. That and this will be a multi chapter fic. Sorry for the confusion, I was going off 48 hours of no sleep and I didn't see the multiple chapter story button thing...
> 
> Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed... I'm going to bed!


	3. Chapter 3

The stupid instruction pamphlet wasn’t helping.

Every time you gave an order to the collar or bracelet it continued to ignore your requests. You had tried googling up solutions with no results, and tried calling the downtown adoption center. You were put on hold for nearly an hour and a half before you gave up and hung up with a growl of frustration. Sans looked up at your obvious display of frustration before shutting his eye sockets and returning to his nap on the couch. 

“Is the fucking collar even working? Did I waste three hours of my time for nothing?” You hissed unable to let go of your rising anger at the situation.

“yeah. it works.”

“Prove it then,” The words left your mouth before you could stop them. A stab of concern twinged in your gut because no matter how pissed you were you didn’t want him to get hurt. His gaze returned to you, all previous signs of relaxation turned to stiff suspicion as he judged your agitated state. He waited like a gazelle under lion’s gaze, ready to bolt at a moments notice.

“... how would you like me to prove it?”

“I don’t know. Couldn’t you let it shock you just a little so I can… God that sounds terrible, nevermind. I’m probably just reading the instructions wrong.” You threw the pamphlet on the ground and stomped over to the restroom, needing a minute to cool off. Slamming the door behind you, the sight of your red face and scowling features only served to stir the anger pooling in your guts once more.

You had a temper.

You knew Sans didn’t deserve to have it tossed at him though.

His life was even more shitty than yours at the moment.

_ Just breathe _ , you reminded yourself.

Flipping the sink on, you splashed cool water onto your face and forced yourself to calm down. You hated having your space invaded, but you brought this on yourself. Sans probably didn’t want to be here anymore than you wanted him to stay.

A hesitant knock sounded at the door.

Letting out a huff, you towel dried your face before opening the door. The first thought that popped into your head was that Sans was a good head shorter than you as you stared down at the poker faced skeleton.

“we need to talk, pal.”

“Yeah?”

He slowly shuffled back over to the beaten couch and threw you a pointed look before plopping himself back down.

Taking the hint, you decided to sit down on the opposite end of the couch facing the skeleton. Your legs were curled up to give him adequate space as you popped a questioning eyebrow in his direction.

“this collar can never be allowed to shock me. it will kill me. that’s the bare bones of what i have to say.”

“But those collars barely do any real damage. How could one shock kill you?” You asked in disbelief, feeling a sense of deja vu as you recalled him making a similar statement earlier this morning.

“i have 1 hp, which means any real shock from this thing will kill me instantly. tibia honest, i wouldn’t have told you this if i thought didn’t have to.” He shrugged, poker face still in place, you couldn’t tell just how upset he was by having to spill the beans about his condition. “you have more control than you think, pal. i can't disobey any order you give or i’ll dust. U N D E R S T A N D ?”

“L-loud and clear,” You stammered out at the sudden hostile vibes you got from the guy. Chills ran down your spine as you stood and walked a little distance away. You settled down again in the beanbag, needing some space as your instincts screamed at you to run far away.

Those same bullshit instincts didn’t seem to grasp that you were tethered to one being it wanted you to run and hide from. 

Your phone beeped in your pocket signaling it was time to leave for work, making your mind go into overdrive. What were you going to do about Sans? You thought you’d be able to loosen up the distance of the collar and bracelet by now, but you still needed a good ten feet of distance.

“Damnit,” You whined as you got up to find your uniform. “Sans, I have to go to work. You’ll just have to come with me today.”

“... do you have to?”

“Yes, I need all the money I can get. This is non negotiable.” You huffed as you pulled out a deep v necked, black t-shirt with the company name printed on the back and a pair of tan short shorts.

Your phone beeped in your hand again, and after a quick glance you felt a mixture of feelings of excitement and apprehension. 

**Big Bro:** Wanna hang out with me and the guys tonight? 

Biting your lip, you paused before deciding it wouldn’t hurt to just swing by. 

“watcha doing?” Sans asked suspiciously as he looked over the back of the couch, chin resting on his arms lazily. You froze in front of your cheap portable closet organizer as you wondered how Sans would take to meeting your brother’s gang.

“We’ve got a pit stop to make after work.”

“need to find some happy plants or pills?”

“What? No! I don’t do drugs,” You glowered, getting closer to the pissy mood you were in before.

You didn’t wait for his reply as you quickly went to change in the bathroom, and put on some makeup really quick. The eyeliner might have been put on a tad bit thick, but you were beyond caring about your more than usual gothic look.

“Alright, hurry up Sans! We’re gonna be late.” You called as you grabbed your pocket wallet off the kitchen counter top. 

A panicked clattering of bones against the old hardwood floors assaulted your ears as you jumped at the sudden noise. Feeling your heart pounding in your chest, you turned around to see Sans rushing towards the space in front of your feet on all fours. He was panting and looked sickly as he tried but failed to stand on shaky legs.

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” You kneeled before him, holding his shoulder gently to steady him as he recomposed himself.

Dark eye sockets eventually looked up at you, and you accepted the stab of fear and guilt you felt at the telling gaze.

“this probably doesn’t exactly  _ shock _ you. but watch how you word things from now on.”

 

* * *

 

 

 

You boss didn’t want to listen to why you needed to have Sans with you at first as you entered the brewery from the back exit. The name of the place, Dead Man’s Hangout, managed to get a slight chuckle out of Sans before he went back to brooding once more. He still was holding a grudge at your accidental order from before.

Supposedly a warning shock wouldn’t be enough to dust him, but it still did more damage than what you normally saw done to collared monsters. To a human it would be like getting a slap on the wrists. The feeling was jarring, but not lethal by any means. 

Unless you were the paradox that was Sans. Insanely powerful with magic, but as weak as a gnat when it came to any physical abuse. You wondered if the poor skeleton monster was always living in paranoid fear of people accidentally dusting him. You were pretty close to doing so nearly a half an hour ago.

“I can’t get the collar to listen to my demands right now. I’ll get it sorted out soon, I promise.” You explained again with more patience than you felt. Inwardly you knew you were going to have to make an agonizing decision if your boss told you no officially. You really needed that money, but Sans life was more important.

“He stays behind the counter out of sight, and if I hear one complaint. You’re both out of here.” Your boss told you firmly, with a clear warning in their eyes before striding out of the back room. She clearly looked pleased by being able to throw her authority around.

You hated the bitch.

However, there was one other person you hated more than her.

As you snuck Sans behind the bar that was starting to pick up in pace in the early evening, you had to refrain from rolling your eyes. Instead of Tyler, you’d be working with Brenda tonight from the looks of it. The curly haired blonde looked like a Marilyn Monroe look alike with a bratty attitude cranked up to the highest degree.

You eyed Sans with a cautious look as you pointed to where he could sit out of the way while you began taking orders from customers. Having worked at a couple bars downtown over the past couple years, you felt in control of the situation and at ease as you bantered effortlessly with your regulars and newbies. 

It took a while for Brenda to notice Sans and of course she scowled and mumbled something you only caught the tail end of. Something about creepy pests or another. You kept your poker face, but gave her a look of warning. You had much higher seniority than her and had even trained her when she first started out. You would not be listening to her bitch and moan about Sans like he was a pet snake you’d brought into work from the way she was reacting.

During a brief moment of downtime close to midnight, she finally tugged you aside. Your flesh crawled as her nails dug slightly into your skin as you let her coral you towards the opposite side of the bar.

“Seriously, I trade shifts with Tyler which is already annoying enough,” She begins with a huff before gesturing at Sans who was still sat on the tile floor. The poor guy was sitting up with his legs tucked to his chest with his head resting on his knees trying to sleep. “Then you make me work by this creepy thing. I hate Halloween or anything creepy, and that thing over there is walking fucking nightmare fuel. You couldn’t just leave him out by the dumpster?”

You took in a breath and counted to five in your head before crossing your arms in preparation for this fight. Brenda had thought she’d been sly in how she shot those nasty looks at Sans all night, but you were done passively taking her shit. You held up your bracelet to let her take it in first before beginning.

“Here’s the deal. This fucking technology isn’t listening to me. So, even if I wanted him sitting outside by the trash, Brenda, I couldn’t make him or he’d die. Get off our backs and grow up, he’s not even doing anything except just sit there. Our boss said he could stay here if he behaved, which he has so far. So do us all a favor and save the pissy looks for someone else, got it?” You bit out before reaching around her for a clean glass, she flinched away from your fierce glare as you got up in her personal space before backing away to pour some water for Sans.

You set the cup down next to him without comment, knowing he’d probably listened to the whole exchange. Wordlessly, he reached down to pick it up and took a small sip before setting it back down with an appreciative look on his face before he went back to resting like before.

Brenda watched the exchange with wide eyes, but thankfully she kept her distance from the both of you for the rest of the night. When the time came to clock out, you quickly ushered Sans out of the brewery and out into the cool refreshing streets.

You were both ready to call it a day, but there was one more thing you had to do first…

 

 

* * *

 

The weather had taken a slight turn for the worst, a slight drizzle of rain was sprinkling down from the dark night sky as you both neared your destination. Raising your fist up to knock on the paint chipped metal door, you waited for a baited moment before it swung open to reveal your older brother. 

“Hey, Atlas,” You greeted warmly, a foreign emotion only given to a select chosen few in your life.

“Sis, you made it!” He grinned widely like the intimidating, dork he was before he stepped aside to let you in. Atlas did a quick double take though as he noticed the extra figure standing a pace behind you. 

“I probably should have mentioned this before I came, but I’ve got a monster now.” You badly explained before you carefully tugged Sans into the building after you. He stuck close behind you as you entered into the gang’s hangout den. It was a cozy rustic place. Well used couches and furniture were set up in one half of the room, while a large circular table occupied the other half of the space. A fireplace crackled in the background between the two places, warming the large brick walled room from the outside chill.

About five pairs of eyes focused on the pair of you in interest as you and Sans plopped down on your prefered couch near the others. Atlas sat on your other side, so you scooted over to recline back more comfortably in the middle seat.

“How on Earth did you find such a cool monster?” Your brother asked curiously with excitement shining brightly in his warm brown eyes.

“I ran into him on accident, and well... “ You didn’t think Sans would want you to talk about the monstrosity you saw last night. It still didn’t even feel real. None of it did. The fact that Sans the skeleton was sitting beside you was bizarre enough for your tired mind. “He wasn’t in the best of shape, and I heard the cops coming, so I collared him that way they wouldn’t take him. Tyler’s monster died a couple days ago, and he wanted me to return the leftover collar. I didn’t go out and buy one if that’s what you guys were thinking.  But I do think it was fate that we ran into each other yesterday.”

Brendon, your brother’s right hand man, let out a hearty laugh as he looked between you and Sans. “Only you, I swear. How do you always end up in the weirdest situations?”

“I don’t know, but I’d really like to figure out how to get this collar off him safety, and get this stupid bracelet off without tipping off all the authorities in the area.” You grumbled as you showed off your end of the deal. The thin band felt suffocating around your left wrist. You could only begin to imagine how Sans felt about his collar.

And that train of thought made you feel like even worse than shit.

You were the asshole that put that on him in the first place.

“Doesn’t he look like that boss monster the news was going on about a couple weeks ago?” Atlas asked as he continued to stare at Sans from where he was leaning forward on his side of the couch. 

“You think he’s a boss monster?” You asked with amusement as you remembered the fight in your head from the previous night. It would make sense. However, to have that much power, and so little health.... Could he still even be classified as a boss monster?

“you’ve got a bone to pick with me being a boss?” Sans asked tiredly, his voice more subdued in the face of all the strangers around him.

“Holy shit! It talked!” Chewy shrieked from where he’s been intensely staring at Sans from an armchair across from the couch. 

“really frightened you to the bone there, huh buddy?”

Chewy shook his head repeatedly back and forth as he got up and backed away from the walking talking skeleton. “Nope, nope, nope, nope. I can’t deal with this while sober! I’m out!”

Chewy left by the back stairwell leading up the abandoned apartment complex above their heads. Most of the gang lived in the abandoned rooms above their heads. Atlas had them all pitch in some extra money every month in order to pay off the person who still owned the property rent. The owner didn’t put any money into fixing the building, but at least they had someplace to sleep at night instead of the streets.

“Anyways,” You hedged, the corner of your mouth quirking up as Sans held back his quiet giggles to Chewy’s reaction. “Do any of you have any idea on how to get this stuff off of us?”

Bandit, a girl a couple years younger than you and Brendon’s little sister spoke up then. “Someone in Phynx knows.”

Silence fell over the group before everyone started shouting, interrupting what you’d wanted to ask.

“Hey.”

“That’s suicide going to them for help!” 

“Hey!”

“Why’d you even suggest that! You know that she’s going to find a way to get into Phynx now!”

“Guys!?”

“Bandit, seriously!? Why the hell did you even-?”

“Shut up!” You screamed, standing up and pointing at Bandit who looked unbothered by the hysterical guy’s around them. “Who in Phynx knows?”

“I don’t know who exactly, but I saw one of them holding a red lit collar. The guy was bragging about it at their pub downtown.”

“They’d never help us,” You sighed, running a hand through your hair as your mind raced for a solution. “There’s got to be someone else.”

The other two guys in the room Luke and Garrett seemed relieved that you had given up on the Phynx member so quickly. While they only had a fraction of their gang here tonight, everyone knew that the Phynx gang was quickly rising in popularity and power in the city. It wouldn’t be long before their gang was just as well set as your brother’s. It frightened everyone to imagine the more aggressive group ruling the streets.

Atlas stood beside you and gave you a considering look before saying, “Look, I can tell your tired and stressed out by this. Go home with your skeleton dude and get some sleep. We’ll talk more about this soon, okay?”

“I’m fine-”

“Sis, you look dead on your feet-”

“she’s not the only one,” Sans mumbled from where he stood beside you, making you let out a laugh at the terrible joke. Taking a look at the dark ringed eye sockets of your new roommate, you decided it’d probably be best to head off. You hated to leave so early, but it wouldn’t be fair to Sans or the rest of the group who looked ready to nod off.

“Fine, we’ll leave. See you soon, everyone.” You told the others before getting engulfed in a warm hug from your brother. 

“Be safe,” He said worriedly before ruffling your hair and stepping back an arms length away. “Call or text if you need anything.”

“I will,” You reassured before fishing through your wallet and handing him a stack of twenties you’d saved up for the month. Giving him a look you knew he’d understand, he nodded and pocketed the money in his back jean pocket.

“I’ll put it with the rest, now hurry up before the rain starts really acting up.”

 

 

* * *

 

You and Sans were drenched by the time you got back to the apartment.

“so, you’re part of a gang?”

You huffed as you yanked off your wet clothes and pulled on some dry warm ones instead after toweling down. You weren’t in the mood to warm up in the shower, sleep called to you more fiercely than the warm water did.

“No, but I’m related to someone who’s in a gang. I just get all the perks without doing any of the hard work.” You said with a louder volume than usual from where you struggled into a new outfit inside the bathroom.

Not true, you’d put your life on the line multiple times in the past for some of the members. Those people were like extended family to you at this point. You knew them better than you’d ever known your cousins, aunts, uncles, or grandparents. Hell, even your own mother who’d bailed after your littlest brother Jax had just turned two years old!

Finishing wiping the rest of your makeup off your face and brushing your teeth, you padded out into the living space and felt bad for the drenched skeleton sitting stiffly on the edge of your couch. He blinked sluggishly, and you weren’t sure if it was all rainwater or sweat beading on the visible bare bones of his body.

“Sorry, shit, I forgot you don’t have anything else to wear.” 

You hurriedly found a couple baggy sweatshirts you’d taken home from the gang’s hideout before tossing an acceptable looking plain black one at the couch. You dug around for some sweatpants, and tossed an extra baggy one after the sweatshirt. Sans took them both with a thankful look before heading slowly to the bathroom himself to change.

Your mind instantly took a weird turn as you tried to picture him naked, but you quickly shook that train of thought away as you focused on your plans for tomorrow as you settled into your beanbag bed. 

It was your day off, but you knew you should probably check on Tyler to see how he was doing.

Then it hit you.

Maybe he would know how to change the settings on the collar?

If not, then you’d have to go back to the adoption place and have them fix it, which you really didn’t want to have to do.

You hoped with all your might that Tyler could shed some light on some things.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Felt some inspiration for this story tonight, I wrote this all in one sitting and only briefly looked it over for mistakes. Sorry for the long wait. I got caught up with a bunch of stuff going down at work this past winter and spring, and have only recently gotten back into writing. I still remember some major plot points of this story, but I'll try to figure out how I was going to end it again. 
> 
> Anywho, I hope you guys enjoyed. I gotta get up early for work tomorrow and it's practically 1:00 in the morning... sighs. 
> 
> I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up... We'll see...


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